Revision as of 19:50, 23 March 2009

Buckminster is also packaged in a so called 'Headless' command line oriented version suitable for running on remote servers, be invoked from scripts etc. The Headless version is based on Eclipse but only includes what is needed to run as a command line tool. The footprint of the headless version is thus much smaller than for the complete Eclipse IDE.

The Headless version as it is delivered today requires configuration before use. The downloadable version only contains the Buckminster core - i.e. it does not contain any of the optional plugins. They are easy to add, but it requires some work on your part.

Prior to Eclipse 3.5, the headless buckminster uses Eclipse Update Manager to install the required features. Starting with 3.5, this is done with Eclipse p2. Note that it is possible to build for 3.4 using a 3.5 Buckminster.

Buckminster Packaged as an Eclipse Product

This format is for specialized situations; it is called the 'product' format as it is built using the Eclipse Product packaging paradigm. Beyond the fact that is intended as a standalone package, you can view it as a subset of the functionality gained through the update site. Specifically, it is intended to be used in Headless mode situations only (though given it's design it can serve as a foundation for achieveing a graphical startup as well). It only contains the bare essentials to begin with, so before it can be used for anything useful, it needs to be customized by you. The benefit is that you can be very selective on what it contains, and thus bring down the footprint. Actually, it is likely you may wish to use install further Buckminster features from the Buckminster update site.

Product builds are available as zip archives available on our download page.

Note that Buckminster has many possible extension points. This is also true for the Headless framework. In fact, it is entirely possible to use only this framework and produce your very own headless application which has nothing to do with what Buckminster otherwise can do. More on extending the Headless framework here.